A biased look at psychology in the world

May 09, 2010

The Counterfeit Lama

Beginning in the 1950s and continuing for decades afterward, the name Tuesday Lobsang Rampa was synonymous with the occult and exotic. When his first book, The Third Eye, was published in 1956, the author (who had originally gone by the name of "Doctor Carl Kon Suo") described his training as a Tibetan monk. As Rampa related in his book, he had originally been sent to a monastery at the age of seven and began his arduous training by having the "Third Eye" awakened to enhance his powers of clairvoyance. The operation involved a small hole being drilled into his forehead with a U-shaped awl. In his book, Rampa stated that, "one of the lamas "pressed the instrument
to the center of my forehead and rotated the handle. . . . There was a
little jolt as the end hit the bone. He applied more pressure. . . .
There was a little 'scrunch' and the instrument penetrated the bone. .
. . Suddenly there was a blinding flash. . . ."
"You are now one of us, Lobsang," the lama said. "For the rest of your
life you will see people as they are and not as they pretend to be". He called himself Tuesday Lobsang Rampa since that was the day of the week on which he was born (which he claimed was a Tibetan tradition for birthnames).

While the notion that the human pineal gland was the seat of the soul and the centre of mystical experience dates back to ancient times (and made famous by Rene Descartes), the use of trepanation techniques to enhance psychic powers has been explored to some extent in occult literature. Still, it was T. Lobsang Rampa who made the idea famous with his best-selling book . Rampa also described how the trepanning operation gave him tremendous psychic powers including the ability to diagnose disease by reading "auras", astral travel, and levitation. He also discussed his meeting with yetis, advising the Dalai Lama, being imprisoned in Russian and Japanese concentration camps, and serving as a medical officer in China. Readers were awed by the vivid descriptions of the mysterious world hidden in Tibetan monasteries.

Unfortunately, people who had actual experience of life in Tibet were not so impressed by the book's numerous errors. Suspicion over Lobsang Rampa's fantastic claims led to a formal investigation by Liverpool private investigator, Clifford Burgess. The results of Burgess' investigation were eventually published in 1958 in an issue of U.K. tabloid the Daily Mail and revealed that Tuesday Lobsang Rampa was actually Cyril Henry Hoskins. The son of a Devon plumber, Hoskins had never visited Tibet and didn't even own a passport at the time his book came out. Prior to 1956, Hoskins was working as a clerk in London while trying to become a successful writer. At some point, he decided to shave his head, grow a beard, dress in elaborate Chinese robes, and change his name to Carl Kon Suo. After being confronted with these revelations, Hoskins made no attempt to deny them. As he would explain in a later book, Hoskins' body was possessed by T. Lobsang Rampa's spirit after falling out of a tree in the backyard of his Surrey home. Since Hoskins had become dissatisfied with his own life, he agreed to allow Rampa's spirit to enter his body.

Despite his very public exposure, it was hardly the end of Tuesday Lobsang Rampa. Although his British publisher canceled plans for Hoskins' next book, his American publisher was a little more ambivalent about distancing themselves. In a prepared statement, a representative for Doubleday said that: "We expected that people would think it good reading, but not necessarily true." The controversy over the authenticity of Rampa's book simply drove further sales. In 1964, The Third Eye was reissued by Ballantine Books (with no mention of the controversy) and has gone on to multiple printings. In the forward, Lobsang Rampa dismissed all claims against him as being due to "vicious hatred" by his many enemies and that all events in The Third Eye were true. He also added that, "I am Tuesday Lobsang Rampa, that is my only name, now my legal name, and I answer to no other"

Lobsang Rampa went on to write an additional eighteen books including My Visit to Venus, The Saffron Robe, You Forever, and Three Lives. He also put out a Rampa Meditation Kit including a saffron robe, incense and burner, and a tape of Tibetan monastic chants. Even his wife San Ra'ab Rampa published several books describing her life with Rampa. During the 1960s, Lobsang Rampa and his wife immigrated to Canada to escape the high income tax on his royalties. They both became Canadian citizens and established an ashram in Toronto. Long after his death in a Calgary hospital in 1981, Lobsang Rampa's books have remained in print and sold millions of copies around the world. Ironically, the greatest appeal for Rampa's teachings seemed to be in
Western countries. There was little support for the books in India or the rest
of Asia where the obvious mistakes could be easily spotted. At least one journalist has argued that Tuesday Lobsang Rampa was largely a creation of the Western media.

Even today, Tuesday Lobsang Rampa has his supporters as well as an active organization propagating his rather, unique, take on Tibetan mysticism. Although the 14th Dalai Lama himself has publicly denounced Rampa's books, accusations of "conspiracy" continue to be laid against skeptics. The Rampa movement has declined in recent years as other cult religions have become better known but the books are still being sold in occult bookstores as well as online (with no mention of the disputed authorship).

As for Cyril Henry Hoskins/Tuesday Lobsang Rampa himself, it's hard to decide what to make of him. Whether it was fraud or self-deception (or some combination of the two), he certainly knew how to write books that people wanted to read. Even with more information about mystery religions from faraway lands becoming available, self-appointed religious figures are still able to attract the kind of following that Rampa did.

Comments

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How bizarre. What a vivid example of how believing in the supernatural is almost hardwired into our brains -- that discrediting him wouldn't stop the fame and the book sales. You can always find a way to rationalize the facts away.

he wrote some very interesting books...even if he was a fraud, he told a good story...his books were never boring.
i came into contact with his series of books just after a near death experience from a bicycle accident...had a broken collarbone, lacerated and bruised head...generally all bruised sore and cut up....couldn't do much...but was interested suddenly in "mind"...due to the "near death" experience...my girlfriend at the time (1974) had T. Lobsang Rampa's entire series (i believe...or if not all, most)...so as she thought it was interesting, and i had nothing much else to do, i started reading them...they were fascinating, colourful, and lots of fun to read...

after i read those, i migrated to the real Tibetans, such as the Dalai Lama, Chogyam Trungpa and folks like that...but i still have a fond spot in my heart for good old T.Lobsang's books....they were romantic adventures if nothing else....you could call them fantastical "historical" (now) romances leavened with a lot of imagination...i liked the tone of his "authorial voice"...it was friendly and inclusive, inviting the reader to feel himself a part of Rampa's group of friends....i liked the books very much at the time.

Lobsang Rampa may have been a charlatan, but one thing i can say is that his books made a good reading. I remember i read my first Rampa book back in 1982 (?). I was barely in my teens, but was quite the voracious reader. I had a severe stuttering problem esp when speaking in front of people. One of Rampa's books (don't remember which one) talked about self-hypnosis. Would you believe self-hypnosis actually cured me of stuttering ? I even tried to astral-travel but sadly, was unsuccessful. Thank you, Dr. Rampa.

As a true believer in Dr. T. Lobsang Rampa I'll not try to convince but instead point out that Dr Rampa described in his books the process of transmigration which he undertook into the body of Cyril Hodgkins. Believe that or ridicule that without proof on either side and science is absent but there is faith, intuitive knowledge, and belief. My belief in something does not make it so nor does skepticism make it unso. Dr Rampa always stated that everything he said was true and was written from personal experience and that he could do all the things which he said he could do. If you follow the numerous reports of people experiencing out of body events while undergoing surgery or during a near death experience you have a starting point. Now as is often the case, this gets passed off as a figment of the dying brain, until recently that is. The book "Proof of Heaven" by Neurosurgeon Dr Eben Alexander places the notion of Out of Body Experience well into the realms of science since he examined his own OBE through the eyes of a Neurosurgeon and came to some very startling, already accepted by some and known by others, conclusions. But his is just one of many pointers to the truth I have found and experienced throughout the years since first reading Dr Rampas books. Another open minded scientist has also demonstrated and is marketing his device which shows in some subtle detail the Aura that surrounds all living entities, Dr Harry Oldfield. But these are just hints to the truth which one can only discover through an Open Mind. The ignorant past scientific notion that when your dead your dead will be discussed amusingly in the not too distant future. As for proof that's up to the individual to discover through long and dedicated practice for the present. In the not to distant future "science" will confirm the truth of what Dr Rampa wrote about. That scientific journey has already begun I believe.

I have had a few involuntary Out of Body Experience while in college as I was researching on the occult and could attest to what was mentioned on the book. I also consulted a psychic who happened to be my adoptive mother and she related to me a few things to expect when you have an astral experience. Strangely enough those things were mentioned in one of T. Lobsang Rampa's books. However she was so old that she couldn't even read a pocketbook better yet understand fully well the English language so definitely her knowledge about astral projection was all on her own but it was similar to what was on the book. Now on this case if having an out of body experience is the strangest thing that we don't know about in being alive as a human being I suppose it is quite easy for us to doubt the personality of T. Lobsang Rampa. It's just like being inside your house and looking at the world by the window of your room.